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PAN Art Connections and Contemporanea Progetti are pleased to announce that they have joined forces, bringing their experience and expertise to the organization of a new and dynamic exhibition dedicated to the American visionary artist, Man Ray, in collaboration with an extraordinary private collection.

PAN ART CONNECTIONS INC. www.pan-art-connections.com Contact: Nicholas T. Kondoprias - Partner / Co-founder Email: [email protected] Europe: +30 6932232562 US: +1-518-248-6071

Copyright © 2020 Contemporanea Progetti. All rights reserved; intellectual and moral property of Contemporanea Progetti. No part of this book can be reproduced. The images are only included for illustrative purposes and in any case are not liable to article no. 1522 of current Italian regulation (Codice Civile art. 1522). ABOUT THE EXHIBITION AND COLLECTION

Without doubt, Man Ray was a charismatic, iconic and international protagonist of the modern art scene that emerged in the 20th century. Famous as an important exponent of the Dada and Surrealist movements, he was tied to neither. From New York, Paris, Los Angeles and back to Paris, he experimented with many mediums and techniques. Although he considered himself foremost a painter, he dabbled in sculpture, drawing, film and is perhaps best known for his photography.

This exhibition of +120 works explores the creative genius of Man Ray, a man who fully embraced his own life, a visionary artist who once provocatively declared “I never painted a recent painting.” The exhibition draws upon a superb European private collection and presents an evocative overview of this eclectic artist’s life, career, a multitude of his passions and in particular his love for chess. It includes iconic works of painting and sculpture as well as drawings, photogravures, “rayographs,” vintage photography, other objects and documents of his own collecting and six of his treasured chess sets. It includes the masterpiece Pandora, Portrait of Ava Gardner and a focus on the years Man Ray spent in Hollywood, his relationship with Albert Lewin and his involvement in the 1951 Surrealistic film classic, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.

This very unique and comprehensive collection reflects the intense scholarship, dedication and passion of a very private collector. Rarely have works of this collection been on public display, and only at very prestigious venues such as the Tate Modern, London, MNAC, Barcelona, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, to name a few, and as a collection, at the Kaohsiung Fine Art Museum, Taiwan. Provenance is well-documented as are records of previous exhibitions and catalogue publications. The 6 different chess sets constitute the largest, existing collection of Man Ray chess sets.

Eye with Tears MAN RAY • 4 Man Ray Printed work on paper; duotone-heliogravure, wove paper 1933, printed for the 1934 edition EXHIBITION SUMMARY & SPECIFICATIONS

Exhibition Highlights

Pandora, Portrait of Ava Gardner, oil on canvas (1950)

Largest, existing collection of Man Ray-signed chess sets

Heliogravure prints for the 1934 1st edition of Photographs by Man Ray 1920 -1934, printing personally supervised by Man Ray

Summary of Contents:

• 4 original paintings dating from 1916 - 1950 • 5 original drawings dating from 1929 - 1954 • 6 signed chess sets dating from 1926 – 1973 • 7 sculptural or 3-dimensional objects dating from 1931 – 1974 • 11 original photographs from The Milky Way series (1973) + 2 original photographs • 12 Lithographs, signed and numbered (1971), The Origin of the Species by Way of Irrational Selection • 22 Heliogravures, Rayographs, solarizations printed for 1934 edition of Photographs of Man Ray 1920-1934 • Ca. 25 B&W Vintage photography from Hollywood and film set of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman • Ca. 25 associated printed materials

Additional Exhibition Materials:

• High resolution images, files for captions, object labels and wall texts

General Display Requirements:

• Museum-quality environment • 350 - 400 ft. of linear display space

Other Characteristics of the Collection:

• Geographical location of the collection: Europe (Italy). • All hanging works are shipped framed as per international museum standards. • Collection includes shipping crates and packing materials, fabricated to international standards, to ensure safe ‘nail-to-nail’ transport. • Collection is comprehensive, covering a substantial representation of the artist’s body of work making it capable of serving as a stand-alone exhibition. • Museum curators are provided with extensive information and may “Nothing Said Will Be Held Against You!” curate the exhibition to their audiences, subject to review. from The Milky Way Series • Appropriate artworks from the borrowing institution’s collections Man Ray may be added to the exhibition. Original Photograph 1973, published in 1974 ABOUT MAN RAY

Man Ray (1890 – 1976) was born Emanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia on August 27, 1890. By the time of his death in Paris on November 18, 1976, Man Ray was well-known as an enigmatic and experimental visual artist who still today defies definition or classification. He created major works of art in a variety of mediums. His artistic career can somewhat be divided into four stages and geographical locations: his early life and career in New York City; 1921 – 1940 in Paris; 1940 – 1951 in Los Angeles, 1951 – 1976 and his return to Paris.

Early life and career in New York City

“I never painted a recent painting.” – Man Ray

Man Ray was the eldest child of Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a tailor by profession, and remnants and references to the tailoring influences of his childhood would appear in much of the artist’s later work. Sometime in 1897, the family moved to Brooklyn, and Man Ray attended the Boy’s High School from 1904 to 1909. His education there supported his natural artistic and mechanical inclinations and provided him with basic skills in drafting and other techniques. After graduation, he declined a scholarship to study architecture and instead decided to pursue an artistic career, aspiring to be a painter. Although his decision was a disappointment, his parents supported his decision by arranging their modest home to provide for him a studio. During his own lifetime, Man Ray preferred to keep the details of his family background shrouded in obscurity, however, in 1912, the family changed their surname to Ray, and Emmanuel began to use Man (instead of the nickname Manny) as his first name.

Also in 1912, Man Ray enrolled in the Ferrer School, abandoning conventional painting and initiating an intense period of artistic growth influenced by contemporary avant-garde artists such as the photographer Alfred Stieglitz and movements such as Dada. In particular, his friendship and artistic collaboration with Marcel Duchamp which was formed during this early period would have a lifelong impact on Man Ray. Influenced by Duchamp, Man Ray developed his interest in the elaboration and modification of ordinary objects. Two iconic pieces from this period were the Gift (1921), a flatiron with metal tacks, and the famous Enigma of Isidore Ducasse (1920) a sewing machine wrapped in cloth and tied by a cord. It was also Duchamp who fostered Man Ray’s lifelong passion for chess by encouraging him to join the Marshall Chess Club in 1915.

It was also in this early period that Man Ray met and married his first wife, Donna Lecoeur, although they separated in 1919 and divorced in 1937.

Self-Portrait MAN RAY • 8 Man Ray Printed work on paper; duotone-heliogravure, wove paper 1934 1921 – 1940 in Paris art, radical politics and frustration with Hollywood’s preference for profit over artistic merit. Although, Lewin tried to find Man Ray work, In 1921, Man Ray moved to Paris and settled in the artist quartiere of the independent spirit of the artist wasn’t interested in collaboration, Montparnasse. The artistic, surrealistic and bohemian circles of Paris or the teamwork aspect of filmmaking. So, to make ends meet, Man between the wars teemed with celebrity characters – Pablo Picasso, Ray was compelled to continue his portrait and fashion photography, Salvador Dali, Peggy Guggenheim, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Ernest commercial activities that afforded him a livelihood, but conflicted with Hemingway – to name but a few. During these decades, much of his work his experimental artistic soul. He also designed and fabricated chess involved photography – he worked as a fashion and portrait photographer, sets, signed and numbered on the white king, and organized several solo but also as an experimental photographer. During this period, he exhibitions. pioneered several techniques such as solarization and he created his famed type of photogram that he called a rayograph. In 1925, he was represented in the first Surrealistic exhibition at the Galerie Pierre About the Film, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman along with artists such as Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Joan Mirò and Picasso. One of his iconic works from this period was a metronome with an eye. Lewin finally convinced Man Ray to collaborate with him during the His friendship and collaboration with Duchamp and Francis Picabia making of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. Lewin wrote, directed continued; all three connected by experimental art. He also dabbled in and co-produced this surreal romantic fantasy starring Ava Gardner film and directed several avant-garde short films. as an American nightclub singer named Pandora Reynolds. Like her mythical namesake, Pandora unleashes pandemonium on a small Personally, he was involved in several love affairs. Soon after arriving Spanish fishing village where her provocative beauty inspires men to in Paris, he became involved with Kiki Montparnasse who became the sacrifice their dreams in order to win her affection. Despite many suitors, model for many of his famous photographs of the 1920s. In 1929, he Pandora remains cold and aloof until a mysterious Dutchman named began an affair with his assistant at that time, Lee Miller who would Hendrick van der Zee (James Mason) sails into her life and captures her become a leading Surrealistic photographer. Their affair ended in 1932. fickle heart. During production, Man Ray was given the job of the still photographer and taking portrait photographs of Ava Gardner. He also designed the magnificent modern-style chess set used by actor Harold 1940 – 1951 in Los Angeles Warrender in one scene.

“There was more surrealism rampant in Hollywood than all the surrealists could invent in a lifetime.” – Man Ray

Man Ray fled his beloved Paris in 1940, now occupied by troops from Nazi Germany. Like many of the Surrealist circle which left Europe, he initially returned to New York, but soon afterwards, literally caught a lift with a travelling salesman to Los Angeles. He would spend the next eleven years in California, an unusual choice for a rather well-known Surrealist artist and fashion photographer, but perhaps it was the climate or cinematic ambitions that attracted him to southern California.

Soon after his arrival, he met Juliet Browner at a jazz club. She was a model, a dancer and aspiring actress who would become his muse, and second wife in 1946. They moved into an apartment on vine Street; he set up a studio and bought a car, later saying, ”Now I have everything – a woman, a studio, a car.”

While living in Hollywood, Man Ray also formed an unexpected friendship with another creative eccentric, the writer, director and producer Albert Lewin. Lewin was a successful producer and director who owned a beachside home in the Pacific Palisades at that time. During celebrity Man Ray, Juliet, Bill Copley, G. di Herrera dinner parties or soirees with stars at hotspots such as the Brown Vintage Photograph Derby, the two men bonded over their mutual appreciation of modern 1951

9 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 10 1951 – 1976 Return to Paris

Man Ray returned to Paris in 1951 with his wife Juliet. They settled into the St. Germain-des-Pres neighborhood near the Luxembourg Gardens. Man Ray opened a studio and resumed painting and sculpture as an artistic focus. He also revisited a number of his iconic works from earlier periods, reproducing them in new forms and managing the production of limited edition replicas of several of his artworks. It would take 10 years to complete, but he also published his autobiography, Self Portrait, in 1963. In his final years, he also continued to exhibit his works with shows in many major cities. He was 86 years old when he died from complications of a lung infection. He was interred at the cemetery of Montparnasse with the epitaph “unconcerned, but not indifferent.”

11 • MAN RAY ABOUT MAN RAY & CHESS

e Roi est à moi – la Reine est la tienne la Tour fait un four – le Fou est comme vous le Cavalier déraille – le Pion fait l’espion comme toute canaille ·· Fait de toutes pièces

Man Ray 1962

the King is mine – the Queen is yours the Rook is a fiasco – the Bishop is like you the Knight is off the rails – the Pawn is a spy like every scoundrel ·· Made out of thin air

Man Ray 1962

Chess was a popular pastime with Surrealist artists. Although it seems that Man Ray taught himself how to play chess as a boy, his lifelong passion for the game began in 1915 when he joined the Marshall Chess Club in New York City, encouraged by his friend and fellow Dadist, Marcel Duchamp. For Duchamp, “chess was art; art was chess,” but it was Man Ray who was the foremost maker of chess sets among 20th century artists. The geometric pattern of the chessboard appeared as a key image in Man Ray’s work since as far back as 1911. Although chess with its strict set of rules might seem at odds with his artistic temperament, he is quoted as saying that the chessboard is “a field for clear thinking, impromptu imagination, surprise, planning for the abstract.”

His earliest-known chess set was made in 1920 out of simple, geometric shapes mostly found among the odds and ends in his studio. The King was a pyramid, the Queen represented by a cone, the Rook by a cube, the Bishop by a bottle-shaped form while a sphere glued to a button was used for the pawn. The Knight was formed from a piece of a violin.

When he moved to Paris in 1921, Man Ray took his chess set with him, and in 1926 was commissioned by the Maharajah of Indore to create a larger version in silver. When living in Hollywood in the 1940s, however, he began to seriously and consistently design and fabricate new sets in wood and modern materials such as anodized aluminum, each new design evolving from the original 1920 set consisting of objects found and reconstructed in his studio. Each set allowed the artist to balance art and design without compromising his principles about either, and still today, each set is an eloquent expression of the intersection between art, geometry, poetry and games.

Pierre Roché and Marcel Duchamp playing chess with Man Ray’s 1926 silver chess-set MAN RAY • 14 Reprint of Man Ray original photograph Photograph 1980s SELECTION OF WORKS FROM EXHIBITION CHECKLIST Monsieur and Madame, the Viscontes of Noailles Couple Rest in a Living Masked As ‘Fantom of Action’ at the Château du Dé Marble Rug Man Ray Man Ray Oil on canvas applied on cardboard Oil on canvas 1929 1938

17 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 18 Pandora Pandora, Portrait of Ava Gardner Man Ray ? Man Ray Vintage B&W Photograph Oil on canvas 1950 1950

19 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 20 The Usage of Word Hand and Fruit III Man Ray Man Ray Ink drawing on paper Ink drawing on paper 1939 1940

21 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 22 A Third Eye For Bunuel’s L’age D’or Composition of Arches (The Golden Age) Man Ray Man Ray Ink drawing on paper Pen drawing on paper 1954 1929-1930

23 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 24 Perpetual Motive Cadeau (Gift) Man Ray Man Ray Wood, metal and stereoscopic photograph Metal, iron with spikes 1970 1921/1972

25 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 26 Café Man Ray Pomme a Vis (Apple and Screw) Man Ray Man Ray Bronze, wood 3-Dimensional object in a cylindrical case 1948/1974 1931/1973

27 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 28 Chess Pieces Man Ray Anodized aluminum 1946

Chess Sets Film Still From The Set Of The Movie Signed by Man Ray ‘Pandora And The Flying Dutchman’ Wood, anodized aluminum Attributed to Man Ray 1946 Original Vintage Photograph 1950

29 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 30 Bill Copley And G.de Herrera Playing Chess on the Chess Pieces Patio Behind The Copley Gallery Man Ray Man Ray ? Silver and gold- plated silver, Limited Edition From Original Photo Transparency 1971 1948/49

31 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 32 The Medici Venus before the Restoration The Milky Way Unknown, possibly Man Ray Man Ray Vintage B&W Photograph Original photographs 1973 1973, published in 1974

33 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 34 Pomme a Vis (Apple and Screw) Blanche et Noir (White and Black) Man Ray Man Ray Printed work on paper; duotone-heliogravure, Printed work on paper; duotone-heliogravure, wove paper wove paper 1931, printed for the 1934 edition 1928, printed for the 1934 edition

35 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 36 Marcel Duchamp Lee Miller Man Ray Man Ray Printed work on paper; duotone-heliogravure, wove paper Solarization, printed work on paper; Ca. 1922, printed for the 1934 edition duotone-heliogravure, wove paper 1930 ,printed for the 1934 edition André Breton Man Ray Printed work on paper; duotone-heliogravure, wove paper Ca. 1932, printed for the 1934 edition

37 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 38 Unknown Title Face Mirror Lamp Man Ray Man Ray Solarization, printed work on paper; Printed work on paper; duotone- duotone-heliogravure, wove paper heliogravure, wove paper Ca. 1931, printed for the 1934 edition 1932, printed for the 1934 edition

39 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 40 The Origins of the Species by Way of Irrational Selection Printed by Mourlot Lithographs 1971

41 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 42 Night of Saint Jean de Luz Misunderstood Man Ray Man Ray Lithograph, artist’s proof Lithograph, artist’s proof 1968 1962

43 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 44 Film Still From The Set Of The Movie ‘Pandora And The Flying Dutchman’ Vintage Photographs 1950 Le Surrealisme Au Cinema Cover of First Edition of Man Ray ‘Photographs By Man Ray Print of rayograph on cover; 1920-1934’ paper, magazine Man Ray 1953 Paper 1934

Cover Photograph of a Chessboard Book Of Diverse Writings for the Portfolio Of Lithographs, ‘The With Man Ray Drawings Origins of the Species by Way of Limited edition reprint of Irrational Selection’ the original version of 1915 Man Ray Illustrations, paper, book Paper 1976 1971

47 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 48 Man Ray With Another Man Man Ray Naomi Savage Naomi Savage Vintage Photograph Vintage Photograph End of 1950s End of 1950s

49 • MAN RAY MAN RAY • 50 Past Exhibition Photography